Comcast, a national broadband provider, was repeatedly criticized for slowing down BitTorrent traffic by means of packet shaping. Recently, they agreed to lift throttles placed on all users who download Torrents and only limit access to users who consume the most bandwidth. This is not just a step for downloaders, but a step to defend Net Neutrality.
Kudos, Comcast!
I find this is a much more reasonable network management policy, and has received a lot of support from the Torrent community. Additionally, this is a great way that Comcast can possibly monetize legalized downloads from BitTorrent Inc for subscribers. Personally, I wouldn’t mind paying $5 more monthly for unlimited access to BitTorrent’s archive, assuming top-notch speeds.
Comcasters! Please try downloading some Torrents and confirm if you can indeed download at “normal” speed.
UPDATE 4/1 — As stated in the comments, Torrent download speeds are up and working well for Comcast users. This was from a user with the *.az.comcast.net hostname.
